Radio Totse

I have made the decision to start a Totse themed broadcast. It will start mid February on 107.9 FM locally and on the shortwave band covering the pacific and part of the US depending on the time of day and weather conditions but shortwave can cover the globe if the conditions are right. At the moment I am looking at a modified Icom 718 HF transceiver (Link) for a shortwave transmitter and am in the middle of sourcing a FM amplifier for our FM transmitter.

I may start an internet based station to supplement the shortwave and FM broadcasts or otherwise I will upload the shows to dropbox or other such place. I will record the show before transmission as im not keen to transmit from my property in case someone comes looking for the station while I am transmitting plus it makes it harder to be found and any issues can be fixed rather than having a major fuck up on a live broadcast. Chances are I will make it portable and drive out into the middle of nowhere to do the shortwave broadcast and do the FM broadcast in town.

My Ideas for show content is non stop music and discussion of any topic of your choosing which can be arranged on Teamspeak. Basically I would like to use it to attract interesting people to the site and pirate radio is a good place to do so IMO. If you have any ideas or suggestions for the broadcast let me know.

Comments

This sounds cool as hell, like a great way to bring people to the site. As far as the discussion goes you could do different segments of the show based on the different sub-forums, it would also be cool if you could record discussions about pertinent topics between site members on teamspeak and then put them on the show.

Well in theory these are the coverage maps of the US, UK, and Pakistan. They show the estimated signal strength in a given area. I will need to make three transmissions, One aimed at the US and the other aimed toward the UK which also covers Pakistan at 1500 and 1600 hours UTC respectively. The US frequency will normally be 27.500 MHZ at 22 UTC while the UK and middle eastern broadcasts will be at 16.500 MHZ. Both will be on USB as single side band works better than AM plus my rig only does 40 watts on AM compared to 100 watts on SSB.

Unless we have interference issues or whatnot, these will be our primary broadcast frequency's. The broadcast will be on random days which will be announced here before the broadcast begins.

Maps:

White being the strongest followed by grey,yellow,pink,blue,orange and green being the weakest.

Since you are in Australia, I could easily reach you with say 40 watts AM rather than SSB allowing you to listen in using a regular shortwave radio. Even though I can use the regular AM band, I doubt you could hear me over that sort of distance.

EDIT: AM band is no good, However if you get a cheap shortwave radio from somewhere and connect it to a piece of long wire strung up in a tree you should hear me just fine in the evenings.

Update: I just bought a SWR meter to tune the shortwave broadcast antenna to its optimum performance. I am working on the cash to buy the transmitter and should have it by the beginning of February. I need a new mic as I broke my other one and if anyone could recommend some decent audio editing software that would be appreciated. I tried adobe audition and its shit.

At the moment i'm just sourcing things like coax cable and connectors for the antenna as well as other bits and pieces. The transmitter will cost me $880 NZD second hand plus $120 shipping. I could get it cheaper but amateur operators won't sell equipment to unlicensed people even though its completely legal to do so. Besides, its not pirate radio if you are licensed to transmit.

Fuck the FCC/RSM/Ofcom/*insert radio police agency here*. Pirate radio FTW

Update: I just bought a SWR meter to tune the shortwave broadcast antenna to its optimum performance. I am working on the cash to buy the transmitter and should have it by the beginning of February. I need a new mic as I broke my other one and if anyone could recommend some decent audio editing software that would be appreciated. I tried adobe audition and its shit.

At the moment i'm just sourcing things like coax cable and connectors for the antenna as well as other bits and pieces. The transmitter will cost me $880 NZD second hand plus $120 shipping. I could get it cheaper but amateur operators won't sell equipment to unlicensed people even though its completely legal to do so. Besides, its not pirate radio if you are licensed to transmit.

Fuck the FCC/RSM/Ofcom/*insert radio police agency here*. Pirate radio FTW

Wavepad is the dogs bollocks. Been using that stuff for years, ever since I started to stitch audio recordings together many moons ago. Freeware for the most part (if you know where I'm going with this). Cannot recommend it enough.

^ It should work perfectly. It covers the frequencies that I will be using but I find to get excellent reception you should get say 10 meters of wire, hang one end from something high like a tree and run the other end through a window and wrap the bare end around the radios antenna. With the power I will be using, it shouldn't be necessary to have a long wire antenna but they work well if you are struggling to get a clean signal.

I remember doing that when I was a kid (wire tree window) for my crystal radio lol

Fuck its been years since I tried to build a crystal radio. I never had much luck with them, I should get the parts for one and attempt to build one some day. My first shortwave radio antenna consisted of some mains cable strung across the yard which my parents weren't to happy about. I could pick up phone calls on it as a few people in town had the old analogue cordless phones. I will never forget the day when I heard a girl from school talking to her mate about how many guys had fucked her in the past year.

Fuck its been years since I tried to build a crystal radio. I never had much luck with them, I should get the parts for one and attempt to build one some day. My first shortwave radio antenna consisted of some mains cable strung across the yard which my parents weren't to happy about. I could pick up phone calls on it as a few people in town had the old analogue cordless phones. I will never forget the day when I heard a girl from school talking to her mate about how many guys had fucked her in the past year.

Ah noice

I'v tried with old army methods too. they kinda dont really work. making the coil is the hardest part.

I'v tried with old army methods too. they kinda dont really work. making the coil is the hardest part.

I used one of those kits from dick smith when they still had all of that sort of thing. It had the proper cats whisker diode for it rather than the old blued razor blade diode detector that you can make. Getting the right amount of windings of your coil without an inductance tester to help calculate the frequency range is a bitch to do. Sure its possible but its rather time consuming.

UPDATE: The SWR/Power meter meter arrived today and I have finished maintenance on the antenna. It was mainly just replacing insulators on it as the plastic ones I used had been weakened by the weather and the sun, they are all ceramic now so there hopefully won't be any more issues with it. I should have the spare cash for the transmitter within the next few weeks. I might go and get the cabling and connectors for it tomorrow and start replacing the feed line for the antenna as well as the components for the braid breaker so I don't get RF burns when broadcasting.

On the topic of the FM transmitter, I tested its output power today with the new SWR/Power meter and found that without an amplifier it only outputs 10 mW of RF. I want 10 watts minimum. Maybe I will just go buy a 10 watt transmitter after I get the shortwave transmitter. At the moment I can transmit at least 3 Km with the piss weak FM TX which is surprising. The helical antenna outperforms itself.

Hmm, I might have an idea or two for a contribution on my part. Something along the lines of a mix between Andy Rooney and Peter Griffin doing the Grind My Gears bit. Maybe I'll call it Twists My Wick.

Hmm, I might have an idea or two for a contribution on my part. Something along the lines of a mix between Andy Rooney and Peter Griffin doing the Grind My Gears bit. Maybe I'll call it Twists My Wick.

Sounds like a plan. Any material made by the members here will be good.

This is awsome! I dont know much about this stuff but am amazed at the fact you can transmit so far with a home setup
. You must really know ur shit kudos Dak, kudos

Shortwave was the main long distance communication's link before satellites and the internet. Pirate radio via shortwave is still very popular today, It was big in the 50's and 60's. Most pirates have moved to FM however.

Tested the transmitter by running it off a car battery. Although I still need to get an antenna tuner so I can broadcast, I managed to contact a guy in northern Australia by radio (3,700 Km away). He said my signal strength was good and I was coming in clearly. Things are looking promising. I am ordering the antenna tuner and components for a 300 watt power supply tomorrow so we should be up and running within the week.

I'm going to get my radio working again that my dad had when I was little. It's pretty awesome, it also picks up aircraft frequencies and I think picks up police, ambulance and stuff like that (or it did). It'll be nice to listen to the passing planes.

My radio came today. It was well worth the couple of dollars, was picking up some interestingly wierd shit.

Sweet. I have an antenna that will cover between 7 to 7.3 MHz which your radio should have no problems receiving. I was going to start broadcasting tonight but I got home after dark and I need to put the antenna up somewhere, I'll try tomorrow. What sort of weird shit have you been hearing?

Finally purchased a 13.8 volt 20 amp power supply. Just waiting on the antenna tuner unit to arrive. I ordered it 2 weeks ago and my supplier still hasn't received it from his supplier. Once I have it, I will start regular broadcasts. I have been heard in parts of California and most of Australia so I know I am covering a large area. Built the antenna switch and balun into a weather proof box and ran some new 50 ohm coax to the antenna.

EDIT: Was just heard by a guy in northern Spain , I also found that I jam my ADSL connection when I transmit :mad:. Apart from moving either the modem or transmitter, there isn't much I can do to fix it as they use the same frequencies.